Many carbonated and noncarbonated beverages are available on the market and are in demand. For example, restaurants, cafeterias, fast food facilities, and the like often utilize beverage dispensers to provide such beverages to their customers (either from behind the counter or self-serve). These dispensers often used “post-mix” beverage dispensing valves, which use two separate flow paths to dispense water (carbonated or non-carbonated, depending on the type of beverage) and syrup into a cup, in which the water and syrup mix to produce a beverage.
Typically, post-mix beverage dispensing valves dispense only one beverage flavor per valve. The number of these “one-flavor” valves that a dispenser can accommodate is limited, and thus the valves are assigned to the most popular flavors, typically carbonated beverages (cola, diet cola, lemon-lime, root beer, etc.). Consequently, there is usually only room on the dispenser for a single noncarbonated flavor valve (e.g., iced tea), if at all. To provide additional noncarbonated beverage flavors (e.g., lemonade, pink lemonade, fruit punch, raspberry iced tea, etc.), additional dispensers are required. In many cases, these dispensers are dedicated to a single flavor, to prevent mixing flavors between beverage dispensing cycles. This takes up additional counter space, and increases beverage dispensing cost.
Currently, a “two-flavor” beverage dispensing valve exists. This valve has three flow paths (two for syrup and one for water). Current manufacturing techniques consist of machining multiple layers of the valve individually. Those layers are then laminated together to form the flow path between the layers. Incorporating additional syrup flow paths, however, makes the design more costly and complex. Further, the mixture of flavors and/or colors between beverage dispensing cycles is not insured.